“I know,” Pat explained, “but Baptiste Lamont and his crew of forty or more Canucks will be up here sometime tomorrow and Baptiste don’t stand for no funny work. He thinks as how the sun rises and sets fer Golden.”
“Wall, an’ whot is it ye want me ter do?” the other asked.
“Ye will pick out three men ye kin trust and go down the river till ye git ter the rips. It’s only about two miles down. Ye know the water’s mighty fast thar where the river narrows and if we kin git a jam thar they’ll pile up till it’ll take all of a week ter get ’em started agin.”
“But how we goin’ ter start a jam thar?”
“Sure and it’ll be aisy enough. Ye’ll find a scow jest forninst a big pine thot’s so big ye can’t miss it. The water’s only two or three fate deep out in the middle thar, and there’s some mighty big rocks out thar. Now all ye have ter do is ter git out thar wid yer peaveys and build up a pier like of rocks. Build it up till thar’s only about three or four inches of water running over it an’ it’ll do the trick all right.”
“Huh, talk’s cheap, an’ aisy,” the other sneered. “I spose as how ye think it’ll be a reg’lar picnic wirkin’ in the ice water out thar.”
“Don’t I know it’ll be cold,” Murphy snapped. “Ye dont think as how I’m expectin’ ye ter do it fer nuttin,’ does yez? It’ll be twenty dollars fer yez and ten fer each of the men, if ye git a jam thar. Take it or lave it.”
“Now ye’re sayin’ sumpin’,” the man replied more enthusiastically. “I’ll take the job an’ we’ll make ’em jam up all right.”
“All right,” Pat said, and Bob could hear him moving as though about to leave the shed.
“Guess it’s about time I was making a get-away,” he thought as he moved carefully off toward a thick clump of pines a short distance from the shed.